I’ve been taking pictures for years. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer, more like a dude with a camera. I’ve also been posting my pictures on my website in that time. I do very little editing: I remove pictures that are totally black or totally washed out, I remove pictures that are way too blurry, I remove pictures that make my close friends look like retards (sometimes)… but that’s about it. Everything else goes online.
The problem with an approach like this is that it’s tedious for people who aren’t my close friends (or weren’t at that specific party) to wade through pages and pages of photos.
A few years ago, my friend Mike suggested that I get a flickr account and use it to host only my best shots.
Honestly…I felt guilty about this for a long time. If I’m good at taking pictures, shouldn’t every one I take be a keeper? Why should I need to edit my pics?
Turns out, pros probably erase more photos in a year then I’ll take in my entire life. I mean, just watch these videos of Gerry Winogrand, dude goes through film like I go through PBR.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Mike’s advice was further validated today when I saw this blog today from 37 Signals. Matt talks about how he was once taught that if you get one good shot from a roll (for those younguns, you used to buy this stuff called “film” that came on “rolls”. You would pull out a little bit and put it into your camera and…. forget it. Go ask your parents).
To quote Matt from 37 signals:
What if these people picked out the five best shots instead? The five photos that are the cream of the crop. The five that undeniably kick ass. Then the whole thing shifts. Instead of it being a chore to see how their vacation went, it becomes a pleasure.
It’s true! I can post a link to my picture galleries on 100 different blogs and nobody gives a shit, but I pick out that one picture out of 100 that isn’t boring as hell and all of a sudden people pay attention.
And on that note, I think I’m going to go through my flickr account and remove the least interesting images. This way, when I send someone a link to my site it makes me look like a total badass. Though, to be honest, I really like some of those images. Screw those assholes if they don’t like my photo.
Alex set up his camera on our roof deck and had it take a frame every 5 seconds all afternoon. Technical details are on his site. The only thing I’d like to add is that at one point I knock over my glass and shatter it on the deck. The period when Stephanie is all alone up on the roof (and decides to take a nap) is when Alex and I were downstairs fixing new drinks and grabbing a broom for the broken glass.
And to be honest, my desire for this camera is motivated in no small part by nostalgia. When I first started taking pictures I used my Dad’s 1960’s era Canon FT (I think), which came with a two-piece leather case. There was the leather base-plate that stayed on the camera at all times and the leather cover that snapped over the body during storage and transportation.
I need to talk to him and find out what he’s done with that camera. I loved that thing.
On a more rational level, the high-ISO performance is reputed to be much better with this new model. Low light performance for my baby was abysmal. Just utter shit. Everything else was so good, but dim the lights (turn on some Allman Brothers) and this camera looks shittier than your cellphone camera.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that’s to be expected. Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
